extraordinary number of shares traded

The last three days of trade in Tyrian diagnostics (TDX) have been quite extraordinary with near on 150 million shares traded representing about 15% of the company. Some purchases in the last two weeks have been as low as .005c and trade ended yesterday at .008c.

Last week I warned investors selling at ridiculously low prices (0.050-0.006) that selling must be a sign of impatience as it was not justified based solely on two factors;
1. The current asset position of the company which backs each share to 1.1c including approximately $5 million in cash, and
2. The expansion of the Readrite platform through Bayer in terms of number of products available through this platform and the commissioning of the products in four languages rather than just English.

This second factor most certainly will drive the company to within the border of profitability in the immediate future given its low rate of cash burn resulting from a more focused approach to its research and development activities. In its own right, Readrite looks like being the maker of a substantial successful company into the future. In my view Readrite supports a current share price of 2c.

The second string to Tyrian?s bow is its world leading expertise in human respiratory diseases, TB being prominent among these. I have some understanding of the difficulties in advancing diagnostic techniques having a science degree including papers in biochemistry.

To bring a new product to the market is an exhaustive process because when dealing with human disease and its diagnosis there is a need to get it right! Replacing an existing proven technology therefore requires stringent testing by bona fide agencies so that data gathered on proof of effectiveness has rigor. Rigor means it stands the test of peers, experts who will scrutinise your claims of effectiveness and so on.

Tyrian has followed a rigorous route, in having the Public Health Research Institute TB Centre in New Jersey, USA validate their TB marker as a candidate for TB diagnosis. The upshot being that Tyrian?s marker is more sensitive than the current gold standard. Sensitivity is critical in TB because there are few of the disease organisms and they replicate very slowly unlike most bacteria.

The test must be able to detect small numbers of organisms and outperformance of the current industry gold standard gives Tyrian?s lead TB diagnostic marker a competitive advantage in this regard. So much so that Tyrian ?is in the process of identifying an appropriate partner for development and commercialisation...? of this marker. (see Tyrian?s half yearly report to 31 Dec 2010).

One can only speculate on the extraordinary level of trade in Tyrian over the last three days, yesterday in particular. But if an announcement on further progress in either Readrite or TB is imminent, such as the signing of a commercial agreement (and you don?t need to look beyond the half year report to see how likely this is) yesterday?s sellers will soon feel mighty sick.

Buckle in for the ride folks, my suggestion is for the year. If this low flying company enters the multi-billion dollar TB market the type of sickness the sellers won?t be feeling is altitude sickness. They jettisoned prematurely.